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The Testament of Mariam

Synopsis – The Testament of Mariam

With powerful resonances for today, the story of Mariam takes us into the turbulent world of rebellious Galilee under an occupying force, and the courageous lives that changed the course of history. Mariam’s family in Roman Gaul knows her only as a refugee from far-off Judah, without relatives or friends. For more than thirty years Mariam has turned her back on the past, but now a series of events forces her to confront it. In her final illness, that past begins to haunt her, as she looks back on a youth and early adulthood amongst a people who refused to accept the yoke of the Roman Empire.

Born in the north of Judah, in a land troubled by repression and outbreaks of violence, Mariam grows up in a hard-working peasant community, mutinous, impatient, unwilling to accept the traditional role of women in her society. Running away from home – against all conventions and propriety – to follow her charismatic brother Yeshûa and his friend Yehûdâ, Mariam shares in the excitement, the fear and the mystery of their mission, but in the end witnesses the apparent betrayal of the one and the tragic and brutal death of the other. Her life in exile and her fateful past are finally reconciled during her last days.